Council of Fashion Designers of America announces 2011 award nominees and honorees

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The CFDA, or Council of Fashion Designers of America, announced its 2011 award nominees and honorees in New York Wednesday night. And it looks like it could be a very big year for Alexander Wang.

Wang, whose New York Fashion Week shows are on the order of rock concerts, and who opened his first boutique in Soho earlier this year, was nominated for three categories: Womenswear Designer of the Year, Accessories Designer of the Year (must be all those studded Coco duffle bags) and Swarovski Award for emerging menswear designer.

Other nominees for Womenswear Designer of the Year are: Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez (whose fall collection was an urban take on Aztec prints), and Marc Jacobs (again).

Menswear Designer of the Year nominees are Michael Bastian, Patrik Ervell and Simon Spurr. Other nominees for Accessory Designer of the Year are the Proenza Schouler guys (must be all those PS 1 satchels), as well as Reed Krakoff, the creative director of Coach who launched his own namesake label a year ago. (First lady Michelle Obama was recently spotted carrying one of Krakoff’s totes to a parent-teacher conference, and the $1000 bag subsequently sold out.)

The Swarovski Womenswear Designer of the Year category is going to be tough. The nominees are Prabal Gurung, whose fall collection was one of my favorites of the season, Joseph Altuzarra, who also nailed it in February with his cool new spin on grunge, and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, whose label The Row has defied the odds for a celebrity clothing venture by being both a financial success and a critical one.

Designers in the running for the Swarovski Menswear Award are Wang, Phillip LIm and Robert Geller. For the Swarovski Accessories Award, Jason Wu, Eddie Borgo, Alejandro Ingelmo and Pamela Love were nominated.

Marc Jacobs will receive the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, Lady Gaga the Fashion Icon Award (can’t wait to see her outfit for that one), and the London Telegraph’s fashion editor Hilary Alexander the Media Award. In addition, the CFDA Board of Directors will give a Special Tribute to photographer Arthur Elgort. The Founders Award will go to In Style editor Hal Rubenstein, and the International Award to designer Phoebe Philo for Celine, whose recent collections have steered fashion toward minimalism -- a trend that has trickled all the way down to Zara and the Gap.

The awards will be presented on June 6 at Lincoln Center.

-- Booth Moore

Photos, from left: Fall-winter 2011 runway looks from CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year nominees Alexander Wang by Jonas Gustavsson/Peter Stigter for The Times; Proenza Schouler by Slavin Vilasic/Getty; and Marc Jacobs by Jonas Gustavsson/Peter Stigter for The Times.